Vantage
by MiriRainbowitz
Summary: Oliver and Felicity's relationship, as seen by their deceased loved ones perspectives.
1. Moira

_My beautiful boy_ , Moira thought as she watched Oliver place the ring, his fingers shaking a bit, on the souffle.

She knew that she was probably the only person who would ever call Oliver that. Most people would call Oliver handsome or attractive rather than beautiful, and after what he'd been through in the years since the _Queen's Gambit_ sank, there wasn't really anyone alive who would that Oliver was anything but a man.

Moira was not most people, and she wasn't exactly alive, and when she looked at Oliver, she looked past the scars and loss and the titles he held and just saw her son, a person she'd loved unconditionally from the moment she first held him in her arms, a person she would have done anything to protect from any harm the world could throw at him.

The five years Oliver was- gone- had obviously changed him, from a carefree and irresponsible boy into a brooding, responsible man, and if Moira had been anyone other than his mother, that's the person she would have seen. But she wasn't, and even after seeing the evidence of the hell he'd gone through, after figuring out how he spent his nights, she'd never gotten over her gut instinct to protect and shelter him. He was her son, after all.

When she'd figured out that Oliver was actually the vigilante, she'd started paying more attention to the people he was choosing to spend his time with. Obviously, John Diggle knew- despite the appearances they put up, she knew that they were close, and that they worked together, and that they were well on their way to becoming as close as Oliver had once been to Tommy.

It wasn't until after Oliver came back to Starling City after the Undertaking that she even realized that John Diggle wasn't the only new person in Oliver's life. She'd honestly been a little shocked at Oliver's relationship with Felicity Smoak- her very limited interactions with her before the Undertaking had kind of given her the impression that she was just one of the countless women Oliver slept with- but then she'd seen how they acted around each other.

When Felicity had confronted her about knowing that Malcolm was actually Thea's father, Moira had said that she'd seen the way Felicity looked at her son, and she hadn't been bluffing- it was easy to see how much Felicity cared about Oliver. She also hadn't been completely honest- as much as Felicity cared about Oliver, it was easy (for her, at least) to see how devoted Oliver was to Felicity.

As much as it had annoyed Moira- Felicity had no right to be as close to Oliver as she was- there was still something about her that made Moira secretly respect her. She'd hit her where it hurt- the possibility of losing Oliver- but in telling Oliver, Felicity had proved that her feelings for Oliver were stronger than her fear of Moira, and that took more than a hint of steel in her spine.

If Slade hadn't killed her, there was every chance that Moira would have eventually grown to like Felicity. In a way, Moira felt that Felicity was a bit of a kindred spirit, both in her strength and determination, and her love for Oliver, even if that took a different form than Moira's.

Moira's love for Oliver had always been informed by the fact that he was her son, and the ultimate manifestation of that kind of maternal love was shielding him from harm. Felicity, however, loved Oliver Queen as a man, and instead of standing in front of him to protect him, Felicity stood beside him in support. It was why Moira had eventually started to support the idea of Oliver and Felicity being together- it was obvious that they could be as powerful as she and Robert had been, but they would have the added advantage of being great lovers, which she and Robert _hadn't_ been.

She'd honestly been excited when Oliver had finally asked her out on a date, and couldn't help but marvel at how he looked. When he'd first come back, Oliver had been cold and distant, not wanting to form or rebuild emotional attachments. Now, he was smiling, and stumbling over his sentences, and Moira had had the painful realization that Oliver hadn't looked that genuinely happy and carefree since he was a kid.

And then, of course, things went south, and Oliver drew back into the protective shell of the Arrow, at the expense of being Oliver Queen- of being _happy_ , for the first time in almost two decades, and it had pissed Moira off no end. Her beautiful boy was choosing to make himself miserable, and if she'd been alive, Moira would have probably yelled at him. God knows Tommy was- he'd been one of the first person she'd met in the afterlife, and he was equally as invested in Oliver's and Felicity's relationship.

She was still proud of Oliver- how could she _not_ be? Her boy was turning into a _hero_ \- but if he thought that not acting on his feelings for Felicity was a good idea, then he'd clearly hit his head too many times after the _Queen's Gambit_ sank. She certainly hadn't raised him to be such an idiot when it came to matters of the heart.

When he and his team finally defeated Ra's, Moira had actually fist-pumped in excitement when Oliver said that he wanted to go away with Felicity. The excitement, however, had turned to happy tears when, just before they left town, Oliver had gone and retrieved the engagement ring Robert had given to her. He knew- and she knew- that he would wait to propose, but he was definitely going to, and honestly, Moira really couldn't think of a better person for Oliver to give that ring to than Felicity Smoak.

She'd been anticipating this since this morning, when he'd shown the ring to his neighbors while Felicity was inside the house, and now all she could think was _about damn time_. Sure, it wasn't exactly the future she'd envisioned for Oliver- that had involved running Queen Consolidated and having a successful marriage to someone like Laurel Lance- but clearly, life had other plans for her son, and if those plans involved marrying a blond computer genius... well, at least he was happy.


	2. Tommy

If Tommy was physically capable of tearing his hair out in frustration, he was certain that he would be doing that right now.

Seriously. He loved Laurel and Thea, he really did, but if they'd just waited _ten minutes_ , they wouldn't have interrupted Oliver trying to propose to Felicity. And now that they _had_ interrupted him, who knew how long it would take for Oliver to try again?

When he'd first died- first came here, wherever _here_ was- despite the fact that his every thought seemed to be catered to, it had been so utterly _lonely_. There had been countless clubs and bars and women, but not only was it not real, none of the people he loved- Laurel, Oliver, and Thea- had been there. He'd occasionally gone exploring, but the only familiar face he'd seen had been that of Robert Queen, and whenever Tommy had seen him, he'd looked so distracted and sad that Tommy had just decided to avoid him.

It had taken a bit of help, but he'd eventually discovered that he could actually look in on the lives of the people he loved and see how they were doing. Just in time, too- right around when he discovered how to do this, Oliver decided to return from the Island to Starling City (for the second time in as many years).

He hadn't been too surprised to see John Diggle becoming close to Oliver- he'd seen them together when he was alive, and he knew that in his own absence, Oliver would be seeking out someone to be his brother. What he had been surprised by was the presence of the terrifyingly smart, blond-haired spitfire that was Felicity Smoak.

When he was alive, he'd barely seen any glimpses of her- a flash of blond hair, an impression of vivid pink lipstick- hovering around Oliver. He honestly didn't even know her name. But when he watched them when Oliver came back again, it was abundantly clear that Felicity had been a part of Oliver's secret life, and an important one too, given how both Oliver and Diggle treated her. Oliver may have made her his EA, but it was obvious to anyone, especially someone who spent as much time watching them as Tommy did, that Felicity was Oliver's partner and equal.

He'd seen how Felicity looked at Oliver, and his first thought had been that Oliver was just using her, entangling her in his dangerous and recently much less suicidal mission by virtue of his charm and good looks, but that thought had only lasted for about, oh, a nanosecond. Felicity may have looked at Oliver with adoration and respect and friendship and a whole boatload of other emotions, but the way she _demanded_ Oliver and Diggle's respect and admiration reminded him, oddly enough, of Oliver's mother.

When he could tear himself away from watching Laurel destroy herself out of grief for him- and _god_ , Tommy wished he could have been alive, if only so that Laurel would be spared the pain she was going through- he watched Oliver, Felicity, and Diggle (and, later on, the Harper kid and surprisingly, Sara Lance) try to save the city. It was fascinating, really- especially when the first time that Oliver broke his no-killing rule (to honor _Tommy's memory_ , how sweet) was to put three arrows in the chest of some criminal who was threatening Felicity.

(And, on a side note? "He had you and he was going to hurt you. There was no choice to make." _Wow_ , Oliver, that _totally_ didn't make it sound like you were utterly, desperately in love with Felicity Smoak.)

At that point, Tommy was a goner. He could honestly say that his time watching his loved ones was split evenly between Laurel, and Oliver and Felicity (and Diggle, who was great and _why_ couldn't Tommy have still been alive, Diggle was _awesome_ ). If he'd needed to preserve his dignity in any way, he would have said that he didn't know why he spent a lot of time watching Oliver and Felicity, but he was dead, he didn't know anyone here, so there was really no shame in admitting that not only did he want Oliver to be happy, but he just liked the idea of Oliver and Felicity being together.

It had come as a horrible shock to watch Moira die on Slade Wilson's sword, and when Moira had first appeared up here, he had actually waited a bit before going to her. He was slightly happy that there was at least one familiar and slightly welcome face up here now, but he knew that the grief that everyone down there was experiencing had to be enormous.

Fortunately, it didn't take long for Moira to get used to being here, and to be honest, it was nice to have someone to reminisce about their lives, as well as keep an eye on their loved ones. He'd decided to show Moira early on how to watch over her family, to hold hands when one of them suffered a near-death experience- in short, to bond.

The summer after Moira died, both she and Tommy spent more and more time watching Oliver and Felicity grow closer and closer between "study dates" that only lacked date-appropriate physical activities to make them actual dates, daring rescues and taking down criminals, and even though Tommy hadn't liked Oliver's crusade when he first found out about it, he had to admit that the way things were going, it was a pretty worthy crusade.

When Oliver finally (finally!) asked Felicity out on a date, Moira had smiled. Tommy had let out an unrestrained whoop of excitement, not even caring that some people turned to stare at him. Oh, come on- Oliver was still his best friend, and it was adorable to watch him blush and stammer his way through asking Felicity out. Tommy couldn't even remember if Oliver had ever acted like this when he was alive.

Of course, when that asshole criminal decided to literally blow up their date, Tommy had been angry and disappointed that Oliver withdrew into his brooding Arrow armor fast enough to give Tommy whiplash. And seriously, it was actually really frustrating, watching Oliver be completely head-over-heels in love with Felicity, but being unwilling to do something like, oh, _act on those feelings_. Over the course of the next few months, there had been so many times that Tommy wished he was alive, if only so he could slap some sense into Oliver.

Then Team Arrow- as Tommy had taken to calling it- stopped Ra's Al Ghul from razing Starling City, and Tommy had been ecstatic over Oliver and Felicity literally driving off into the sunset (but not before Oliver had gone and picked up his mother's engagement ring in secret, which, wow, if Tommy wasn't dead already, he probably would have died of excitement). He'd watched as they traveled the world, Oliver becoming lighter and happier every day, and Tommy had actually thanked God that Oliver had met Felicity Smoak, because she was everything he could want for his best friend.

He'd been watching Oliver and Felicity with Moira when Oliver told the neighbors that he was going to propose to Felicity tonight, and he'd honestly been smiling so widely the whole day that his face would probably have hurt if he'd been alive.

Which was why he would be tearing his hair out in frustration now, because Oliver was _just about_ to _propose_ when Laurel and Thea knocked on the door, and now that wonderful, beautiful ring was not sitting on Felicity's finger like it should be, but was rather still hiding behind the frosting on the souffle. Seriously- Laurel and Thea had the absolute _worst_ sense of timing. It was exactly the kind of dramatic twist he would have expected to see on a tv show.

As they got into the car, Tommy thought _at least they're going back home again_.


End file.
